Take a Break From Angry Birds, Shoot Arrows at a Guy for a Change

Falcon Mobile has released a new version of its first iPhone game, “Hit the Apple!”, which is currently free to download in celebration of Karma World LLC’s new title, Archer’s Quest. Version 2.2 adds Game Center support, minor bug fixes, and a new scoring system.

The headline should have said “shoot arrows at apples…”, but Falcon Mobile’s game offers more chances of sticking arrows in a person, so it came out slightly different.

Jokes aside, Hit the Apple! is currently free to download for anyone owning an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. It basically prepares players for Archer’s Quest, which features a virtually identical gameplay model.

Hit the Apple! is as simple as its name implies it: guide your archer’s aim to hit an apple on top of the opponent’s head.

Missing one too many times will result in hurting and eventually killing the opponent.

On the other hand, if you hit the apple, each level positions you further away, thus increasing the difficulty.

Some players will undoubtedly find it more satisfying to miss hitting the apple on purpose, given the effort Falcon Mobile has put into making the “opponent” hurt so realistically - blood spurting out, sounds of agony, the works.

Quite notably, however, the game features a control scheme that will be very familiar to fans of Rovio’s popular Angry Birds game.

In fact, the entire gameplay concept is a tad similar to that of Angry Birds - players must place their finger on the archer and slowly pull away to create a slingshot effect, while also moving their finger upwards or downwards before releasing the shot, in order to… well, aim.

Additionally, the last-thrown arrow leaves a trail which can be used to better guide the next shot.

A fairly enjoyable title, and clearly worth giving a try now that it’s also free, if you’re not easily bothered by a few “in-house” advertisements for the new Archer’s Quest game (iTunes link).

As noted above, version 2.2 brings a few enhancements, including Game Center support, with OpenFeint remaining an option as well.

Unfortunately, Falcon Mobile didn’t get around to adding multitasking support for the game. More screenshots below.

Review Information:

- Application: Hit the Apple!; - Developer: Falcon Mobile; - Version reviewed: 2.2; - Requirements: iOS 4.2, iPhone / Pod touch / iPad; - Review device: iPhone 4 (16GB) running iPhone iOS 4.2.1.

Download Hit the Apple! (Free for a limited time)